


Playing God

by FujinoLover



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:44:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1753322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujinoLover/pseuds/FujinoLover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Professor Susan and Ethan Duncan might be the ones breathing lives to the clones, but Doctor Delphine Cormier would be the one bringing it back into Cosima.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing God

 

When it became apparent that they would not manage to find a cure in time, one which did not involve harvesting anything from Kira, Cosima made it clear she was not going to continue with drug treatment. She was adamant in spending whatever time she had left not being stranded in hospital bed, with oxygen tube and IV line hooking onto her body as her hair began falling off from her head. She was not going to be the next Jennifer Fitzsimmons. If she was going to die, she was going to die looking like _Cosima_.

 

To her surprise, Delphine agreed wholeheartedly.

 

It hurt Cosima a little, to know her lover giving up on her-- on them, so easily. She was aware that it was purely irrational for her to feel that way, even more when she was the one forcing the decision without regard of Delphine’s opinion. Because she had expected Delphine to fight or at least to rebel behind her back like she always did, yet none happened. By the next day, the tall blonde informed her about the indefinite time-off she had taken from DYAD and presented her with the assorted plane tickets she had gotten for them. Paris, then San Francisco, and last back to Minnesota, where everything started for them. Then it all downed on Cosima that this was _it_.

 

The end.

 

The last chapter in Cosima Niehaus’ life story.

 

Her expire date.

 

For the first time in months, Cosima broke down.

 

Delphine held her lover all night long. Not a single word of consolation left her lips, for she understood it would be drowned in the sobs and tiny whimpers Cosima was making. She did not shed tears, either, and thankfully the smaller girl was too distracted to notice the faraway look on her face. Cosima was foolish if she thought Delphine would concede defeat, not even in the face of death. No. Professor Susan and Ethan Duncan might be the ones breathing lives to the clones, but Doctor Delphine Cormier would be the one bringing it back into Cosima.

 

Despite the looming, inescapable death, Delphine whipped in a proposal when they were by the Eifel tower. Cosima laughed at first; teasing the blonde about wasting the effort even though they both know the real reason. If she accepted, it would hinder Delphine from moving on. It would bind her with Cosima for the rest of her life and for once, the brunette wanted to be selfish. She wanted Delphine to be hers forever, thus despite the absurdity, she accepted. They celebrated with the Niehaus, contented in not telling them the rest of the story. Then, as if the happy spell had been dissolved once they stepped on Minnesota’s soil, Cosima’s health deteriorated in rapid speed.

 

It was one winter night; the sun had just set over the horizon and leaving the apartment in darkness. Delphine was lying on bed with Cosima on top of her. The smaller girl was thin, her body no longer able to crush Delphine’s, even when she put down her whole weight. The blonde did not mind either way, as long as she could feel the constant beating of the brunette’s heart echoed by her own and the warm moist breath caressing the side of her neck, she was content.

 

Until after a shuddering breath, everything stopped.

 

Delphine paused, straining every nerve on her body to detect any movement from Cosima. None came. She then continued combing her love’s now shoulder-length straight hair. It had become a pain in the ass to maintain the dreads, so Cosima requested the blonde to personally undone it. It was a long process, which ended with Delphine doubling in laughter from seeing the shorter girl’s untamed, frazzled hair that made her look very much like Sarah. They paid a visit to a hairstylist, whom expertly fixed the damage and gave Cosima a new haircut with side-swept bangs that had elicited a girlish squeal from the taller woman. It made the brunette look impossibly younger and fresher and it was doing an amazing job hiding the hollow of her cheeks.

 

The blonde eventually stopped, squeezing Cosima’s still body and planted a kiss on top of her head. “ _Bonne nuit, mon amour._ ” The moment was instantly shattered as reality hit her straight on the gut. A stray tear betrayed her by slipping down from the corner of her eye. “We’ll meet again, soon.” Another squeeze, another peck. “I promise you.”

 

With utter care, Delphine rolled them over to set Cosima on her back then slipped out of the bed. She carefully took off the brunette’s glasses and put them in the safety of her shirt pocket, right above her heart. Then, the Delphine whom Cosima loved was gone, replaced by Doctor Cormier with cold, calculating eyes that were desperately hiding the pain and longing deep with them. She turned on the lamp on top of the nightstand, watching the soft glow hitting her love’s pale skin and chapped lips she could not help but trace with her thumb as she took her phone from the drawer with her free hand and made the phone call.

 

It was answered after one ring. “It’s time,” Delphine said and then hung up.

 

Within barely five minutes, a group of DYAD’s doctors posing as EMTs barged into the apartment. They all nodded in acknowledgement at Delphine before going straight to business. They moved Cosima onto a gurney, immediately connecting an assortment of machines into her body before they wrapped her with a thermal blanket and wheeled her out. Delphine stayed out of the way throughout the process. These people were professionals she had handpicked herself for the project; she trusted them to know what they were doing. She was also pleased to find they had the decency of completing their disguise with a hospital ambulance waiting outside.

 

It turned out that DYAD’s old building had several more floors under the one they showed to Cosima. Delphine found out when she assumed Leekie’s position as director after his unfortunate demise and she had been modifying the lowest floor to suit the project. Rachel and Marian graciously let her do whatever she wanted as long as she came up with the cure for the clones’ illness. She had not yet found one, but she was determined to do so first, because it was also Cosima’s dying wish. For Delphine to find a cure and free her sisters from the fear of their biology failing them. Therefore, for the moment Delphine would keep Cosima in vegetative state until she found a cure.

 

“Doctor Cormier,” a deep manly voice filled the otherwise silent observation room above the surgery room, snapping Delphine out from her trance, “we’re ready to connect the artificial lung and heart.”

 

 _Artificial lung and heart_ , the old Delphine would have scoffed at that, but Doctor Cormier nodded. “Do it carefully.” Her expression was stern with the unsaid threat, _screw up and I will screw up your life_.

 

“Yes ma’am.”

 

It should have freaked her out, seeing Cosima with chest wide open and tubes going through her non-beating heart. Or the end of a feeding tube sticking out of her stomach. Or the hollow cavity where her lungs used to reside. Or the blood that began filling the tubes, sucked by the heart-like machine to go through the artificial lung and bind with fresh oxygen. Delphine did not even blink. She waited until there was a constant beeping noise coming from the machine before she heaved a relief sigh.

 

Cosima was, somewhat, alive.

 

“Doctor Cormier, we are going to close then move her into the amniotic fluid tank.”

 

“Please do.”

 

Delphine ignored the voice of conscience at the back of her head, even though it sounded eerily like Cosima’s. She ignored how much like Leekie she had grown to be. Not only completing his synthetic amniotic fluid, but also making Cosima wears the man-made heart and lung to sustain her system’s needs to stay alive. Delphine would remove and replace every failing organ, flushing out the bad blood with fresh one coming from Sarah and Helena, and filling the spinal cord with Kira’s bone marrow. She was going to rebuild Cosima. Then when it was time, she would bring life back to her.

 

She was not a mere Neolutionist with its self-directed evolution principle.

 

She was God.

 


End file.
